First, I want to offer my condolences to those who lost someone important to them yesterday in the coup that was the storming of the U.S. Capitol building. As the story continues to be told over the next several weeks, I fear that these will be just the first of many deaths--especially if those who began this coup decide that it is important enough to continue it. That's not counting the lives that could be lost because of the corona virus in another two weeks as people begin to experience the effects of their actions yesterday. While I don't expect those protesters intended to start a coup, that is what happened. That is the reality that we are left with.
Yesterday I went through a whirlwind of emotions, many of which I am still trying to grapple with. Fearful, angry, sad, excited, disgusted, resigned, depressed...but the ones I am left with today are mostly sadness and anger--sad because I have many loved ones who feel that what happened yesterday was needed and justified. And if this continues, I may find myself, like I expect many found themselves during our last civil war, fighting against my own family and friends over an ideal. And angry because there is a man in the White House that calls himself the President who deluded millions of Americans into believing that this country in which we live is not, in fact, great, but rather a cesspool on the verge of becoming a third world country. A president who not only condemns the main stream media and science, but anyone who is associated with them when they refuse to conform to his idea of the world. And also angry at the people in power who abetted him in all of this.
And so, like our nation, I am divided and in pain.
There is a final anger in me--that the people who started this coup yesterday are likely unwilling to see this thing through to the end. If they believe so whole-heartedly that this election was a fraud, if they believe that our democracy is truly a sham, then they should be out there protesting, storming the houses of government, and seeking to overthrow it. But mostly, I think they just don't like that they lost, and they won't have the heart and the will to follow through with any of this. Which just means that we'll be dealing with this for years to come.
I don't want there to be war, though.
I don't imagine any of us does--save those few who have never fought in one or sought to survive one. But one charismatic leader (and those who are willing to prop him up) is all it takes--as history can attest.
So, here we are on the cusp of change, in a new year, and the world feels like its falling apart already. I don't know how to reach the other side with words. I feel like we've been trying for a really long time, and instead of listening, they've just got their fingers in their ears, chanting "La la la, I can't hear you!" as loud as they can at the world. Or maybe there's nothing left inside of them besides anger.
But I feel like the propaganda wars are real. I feel like people with more money than sense believe they know what's best for them, and thus the world, and don't care how many of us non-believers they kill along the way. After all, it's only words, and words don't kill. Sticks and stones and all that. The best kind of propaganda ensures that you can't blame it for anything.
And so, ...once again, I am sad--sad to see how easily people can be manipulated. Sad to see how easily a moment of protest can become a conflict etched forever into history--one that casts doubt on the strength and actual greatness of our country. Sad that all I can do is hope that yesterday opened the eyes of those who sought to stop the processes of our government (I hesitate to say overthrow it as I don't believe they were really aiming to do that,)--that maybe they understand a little better what thoughtless action can lead to. That maybe they realize how easily something truly great can be lost.
Sad that all I can do is hope that they don't really believe all the things they say they do, because if they really do....
If they really do, then this division will continue to grow until it tears us all apart.
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